If I could talk to you in person, i could teach you a few things, such as some grounding techniques for dealing with intrusive thoughts and flashbacks.

The one hot new therapy for PTSD is called Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. It is the first therapy to deal with PTSD's bodily, emotional, sensory and kinesthetic effects. (Traumatized folks often feel too little or too much of their emotions and body; or they cannot name their emotions easily, etc.)

A book on Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is called Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine. Another good book is called Coping with Trauma by Jon Allen.

In the latter book, Allen mentions the "90/10 response". That is the idea that the responses generated by a flashback or anxiety attack is rooted 90% in the past, and 10% in what triggered it NOW. That is why it can seem so overwhelmingly powerful and current.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to Private Message me.

Emma

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I am not sure if I really understand PSTD fully, I know I am not suffering from it now least not flashbacks. I was years younger when that happened, over time it has faded and the sleep paralisys went away too.That was my beggest problem. I would stay up nights thinking about what happened over and over in my mind and that caused sleep depervation. I am guessing that is a PSTD thing.

I do have intrusive thoughts always thinking back to bad things in my life, it does not just cover the rape, it covers a lot of experiences with shame. That still follows me today.

If stims are a bad idea for people with PTSD and ADHD, what's the next choice? I would guess antidepressents would fit somewhere, but assuming the person has too many side effects with Prozac, what would be the most effective? How about Strattera? Would that be as bad as the stims or better since it seems to calm anxiety?

You most certainly don't need flashbacks to have a PTSD-like syndrome. (This is a common misbelief made by 'professionals', based on adult-male research.)

(In fact, many people -=avoid=- situations/stimuli that cause flashbacks. *laugh* By definition, PTSD, etc, are disorders of *avoidance*, remember.)

Flashbacks are not always verbal or visual and not always in our declarative ('sayable') memory storage, either.

For example, smell or fear, without words, is common. Dr. Van Der Kolk talks about a woman who was locked in a closet as a child. She could not recall this, but only remembered the panic feelings/fear and a 'musty smell'.

In fact, one Hallmark of trauma is to "not have words" for the experience or emotion, just the un-namable feeling, such as anxiety or depression w/o knowing why.

There is a good book out there right now called "The UNSAYABLE: the hidden language of trauma", which addressses these issues.

At that point, trauma is -=stuck=- in the body, etc. Intrusions (thoughts) and re-experencing (somatic/bodily) is more physical than declarative/mental/memory- based.

See page 3 of the above article. It details how there are serious PHYSICAL effects of remaining in a prolonged stress response, despite it being many years after the original stress had ended. Much of this is the results of our internal stress chemicals remaining stuck on HIGH and doing long-term damage to our bodies.)

DES-NOS is probably more common than regular PTSD, actually, as more women have Complex PTSD, and 2/3 of people with trauma disorders ARE FEMALE. (And ofcourse people tend to get re-victimized later in life for a complicated set of reasons, increasing their odds of the traumas having many layers, and this increases and reinforces the chances of them maintaining.)

When I was in school, and on a mental health team, at least 85% of the female case files had DES-NOS type trauma in their history. Mental health services are not equipped to deal with the fallout of early life trauma, as it is often behavioural and non-verbal, such as addictions, aggression/revictimization, suicidality. (Unfortunately, "trauma looks crazy", etc.)

Last edited by QueensU_girl; 01-30-07 at 10:51 AM..

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ok, for my chronic ptsd, i used a low doseage of antipsycotics to reduce anxiety i take a higher dose in evenings due to the trigger time of the day, I used antidepressants ive tried many and effexor i have been using for 2years, also therapy for me is the way to go, like breathing exercises for triggers, like for images i squeeze my eyes tight and tell myself to think of good things.

I have been diagnosed ptsd (rightly or wrongly, I dunno). But the worst aspect of the condition is the nightmares, or night terrors, sleep paralysis, etc. I have a prescription for a drug called prazosin, which is actually a blood pressure medicine, but it is prescribed also to stop ptsd nightmares. And guess what? It works for me. Only rarely do I have nightmares.

Hello,
I am so sorry to hear what you are experiencing, how frustrating and scary. I don't know much about medications for PTSD but I do know EMDR therapy worked wonders for me. It was truly life changing and gave me my life back and it only took about 4 weeks of treatment. I know every situation is different but if you haven't already, I encourage you to look into EMDR.

Hi. I've a friend who is a police officer and has lost friends to PTSD. One of the programs he believes in, involves a trained dog. It helped a police officer who almost killed himself that my friend knew. I've another friend who trained to work with rape victims using art to treat their PTSD.

I've heard some people, presumeably doctors, (in Canada, a doctor can prescribe it), believe that medical marijuana helps with "something" but I'm unsure if it is flashbacks. (Flashbacks are a side effect for regular marijuana users so maybe it doesn't).
I did try google and your health service has lots of information about several medications on this link. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publi...et/index.shtml

Hugs if they are acceptable to you. Whatever your survived through be it work, violence or an accident, I hope you will beat it.

__________________
Disclaimer: I've not been medicated. I know meds work for some ppl but not how well they work. By default my bias is to work with not against our nature. Do what works for you.

Last edited by namazu; 09-28-17 at 04:06 PM..
Reason: fixed YouTube link: make sure address starts with "http", not "https", so that the page displays correctly.

I struggle with PTSD symptoms too, and I've found a lot of relief in medications. I started taking clonodine to prevent night terrors and nightmares and to my surprise, it actually worked. I would only recommend taking them at night though because it makes me really tired. It's actually a blood pressure medication but I guess it lowers adrenaline etc. I wasn't having great luck with SSRIs or SNRIs, most helped with anxiety but made me really tired or wouldn't help my mood. My last try was Effexor, the one Ive heard for years not to take haha, but it's the one that actually works very well for me and works really well with my dexedrine too, it prevents the edgy feeling I used to get from dexedrine. Other than that, there are short term anti-anxiety meds, etc but they're harder to get, addictive and are not a long term solution.

One thing I will say too though, is that although I've found a lot of relief from medication, medication alone isn't enough. I'm also in counselling, I've done some trauma programs and have a very good support system, and together that and my meds have been a big help.

I was diagnosed with PTSD symptoms after an abusive relationship (30 years old). I spiralled downhill and the next year I was diagnosed with ADHD (I was at uni), which has only gotten worse over the last few years.

I tried Ritalin, but long term, I think it has just made my brain worse. I've tried good lifestyle and clean living, but still is almost impossible to work properly.

I seem to have stumbled upon another relationship of a uniquely abusive kind, I think its triggered my PTSD again. Although, I can sleep and can feel emotions, I have a weird nervous tick from being frightened and physically thrown around.

I don't want to take medication for the rest of my days, but my current partner is trying to indicate I have 'mental problems,' I'm getting to the point, I've taken so much crap, I'm starting to lash out in response.

I don't know if what the problem is now. I know I allow too much instability in my living environments but I just don't know what to do.

I've been trying to set up a work life that allows me ultimate flexibility - work at home during my own times. But I just can't focus for long periods, or motivate towards anything I'm not into.

Am I going to be a social outcast my whole life? Useless in the eyes of normally functioning society...

I've already had trauma counselling, it didn't go super well. Counselling and tried antidepressants for a short time.

I have PTSD among other problems but have no medication to treat it. My flashbacks come without warning and I don't even have to be in a familar place, smells, sounds, or not even familiar music or tv that have same situation of trauma that I have experience with. The only way I can deal with these recuring flashbacks is i yell at them inside my head to go away and leave me alone...sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I yell at them aloud and people think I am nuts when I say things like NO I DON"T WANT TO ANYMORE GO AWAY!

There must be another way to control flashbacks.

Meds can be of slight help, particularly benzodiazapenes like clonazapam which have a calming effect, and if depression is part of the problem, then SSRI's like paxill can help. However, the real treatment of PTSD is trauma work. Google EMDR for Post and Complex traumatic stress disorder.